These are some photos of the tele copy. The last one is the underside of the neck p'up.

The pots seem to be 500k. On that video you posted gonz it said to have your meter set to 2m because 200k wasn't enough. Mine has 200k but the next setting is 20m and it doesn't seem to read it on that setting.

Also the multimeter seemed to move around in it's readings. As in it didn't just land on a number and stay there.

What should I be looking for in the pots? To see if they need replacing. The photos are probably not ideal for you to see much.

The sealed type of switches and output jacks MIJ have a decent reputation so far as I know but I have little experience with them. There might even be some demand for working old ones, don't know. I mean if they work fine then they are fine, just saying if there's nothing that needs to be preserved for vintage reasons and you wanted to put all good-quality new stuff in there while you're swapping things out, it's a good time to do that for very little money. You might leave what you have and be fine for years. I can't tell what type of wood that is from those photos though sorry and I can't be that much help w/ the multimeter you have either.

500k pots will make whatever pickup you have a little brighter with the tone knob at full, I'd really see what you can do about figuring out what wood that is. Ash is generally a pretty bright wood where mahogany is darker. I mean you could gamble on say a Seymour STR-2 which is fairly cheap, find one used on ebay. They're only $58 new and musiciansfriend and other places have their 10% and 15% sales fairly often. Not knowing much about your neck pickup or the guitar wood (or what sounds good to you) it's hard to have any frame of reference. Sticking a more known quantity in there would give some place to start, and you might like it right off.

That's probably true. I'm sure at least the Custom Shop gets pick of the litter. To what extent Fender USA gets top choice over Fender Mexico is something I don't know. I know that people on guitar forums debate it quite a bit though.

First thing to keep in mind is that the Fender USA plant in Corona CA is basically about 150 mi across the border from the Mexican factory in Ensenada. There's stories of Mexican folks working at one while their cousin works at the other.

With the bodies themselves the priorities for normal Fender USA and MIM bodies probably have more to do with determining what type of finish it will receive. A nice-looking two-piece body with decent grain would make a decent candidate for a sunburst finish where you see the grain, where an uglier one would probably get a solid finish. There are people who have sanded down bodies and found 3- of 4 pieces glued together and some feel that's not good for tone. I'm not sure that's really the case, and even if it is it's definitely blown out of proportion.

Where I really see the big differences is in the finish and the hardware. All MIMs and most standard finishes are poly (high end can be old-school nitrocellulose which a lot of people prefer, which Gibson uses also). With MIM in particular you see the finishes are relatively thick and it's more common to see little wavy runs if you look close, things like that.

When I have my guitars built they are usually finished with nitro applied very thin and I like the way it wears down over time, and the reduced weight. As the argument goes thinner finishes allow the guitar to resonate better, but for my part I don't feel that a poly finish necessarily makes for a bad sounding guitar. Mentioned it before but the MIM strat body I have has sounded consistently good in a variety of setups and it's just a better guitar overall than the nitro finished green one and my MIJ strat also, and the couple others I've had as well. PRS finishes their stuff in poly and some of their stuff is great.

[Side note: You can buy MIM bodies used on ebay for $50 pretty often and sometimes make a great guitar with them, where USA bodies can cost quite a bit. You can get a decent neck, good pickups and tuners and all and still come out ahead on price.]

As far as hardware the MIMs definitely have cheap electronics, questionable tuners, a perfectly functional but lesser quality type of vintage bridge. To me I think the first two need to be swapped out to make a serious guitar. They have crappy switches and those dime-sized import pots which are very unreliable and the stock pickups are pretty ass.

Underneath it all remember they're just pieces of wood, which vary in resonance and weight and all of that. To some extent it's kind of the luck of the draw.

The luthier who posted ITT could probably weigh in with a far more experienced opinion as I'm sure he's worked on a ton of various Strats about things like that.

Classical will be easiest for you to learn the chord shapes. Build the muscles you need before busting the tips of your fingers open on an acoustic. Sadly the easier to play a guitar, usually the more expensive.

Recently played a Seagull acoustic for the first time. Great sounding guitar for cheap. Electric has many kinds of decent and easy to play. Shecter makes good cheapies, as does fender, ibanez, on and on and on. Your style of music is most important. Dual humbucker for rock and distotrion... single humbucker for cleans. At least thats my (and most players) preference.

Learn your basics and if passion perseveres, then it will carry you to the information and equipment you need.

Rock the f on

Hi

I love music and just discovered this new subforum

I play on a hobby basis, have been on and off for a while but putting in a lot of hours now. I also like to tab songs on guitar pro and I make some riffs of my own, it's cool
Own an Epiphone LP Black, a replica of the same, an acoustic and a line6 spider 15w (very very happy with it as a practice amp)

As a complete beginner, just get the cheap stuff. Get a really cheap acoustic that makes any sound or a cheap electric with decent reviews. You can get great quality guitars off of asian websites, note some are replica and pose as "genuine" - please do not support this business.

I say this because I had a friend who "was gonna become a guitar god", bought equipment for like $4K and, well, if he's lucky he still remembers that E minor he learned 3 years ago. I think he bought both a stratocaster and a les paul with like a 100w amp despite the clerk saying "this is for concerts". WTF
Guitar takes so much practice and patience, the learning curve is incredibly challenging.

I've been stuck a bit on similar skill levels and I read a lot of great criticism on this practice routine: http://www.amazingguitarsecrets.com/...rstrength.html
I'm gonna start throwing it in there before a session

Cheers!

It's got to be Wednesday somewhere in the world, right?

Actually it's already Wednesday night here so I hope the mail comes early for you and you can post up some pics!

Did gonso actually get a lil' something something too? We should see that also!!

Mine is supposed to show up today also, along with a lot of other stuff I ordered. Definitely interested in looking it over up close and messing with it a bit.

Well it's here along with some other goodies and projects. I'm sorry I don't have a suitable camera to really dig into it but I'll write the mini-review based on ~40 minutes tooling with it.

The really bad:

Nothing really. There are flaws but you have to get pretty close to see them, and nothing that affects the functionality of the guitar.

The sort-of bad but not unusual for sub-$1,000 guitars:

• Could use a little cleaning for a new guitar, a few splotches I can clean off
• There is a mini scratch on the back and what looks like a couple light tool marks near the ferrules on the back also. Ferrules are countersunk but badly, you can see a little ring of stripped wood beyond the ferrules themselves.
• The finish is consistent with most guitars in this price range, several small imperfections when you really look close, like a lighter spot of paint on the sides, some marks where the fretboard meets the neck wood. Typical Made in China workmanship.
• Glue showing under the finish at the neck joint, but smooth. I wonder if they painted the neck and body separate, attached them, then clear-coated. Those crafty Chinese.
• I see a topside ferrule that's not hammered in completely (low E string), I'll take care of that. Ferrules seem to kick their ass over there I guess.
• A little glue seeped out from the nut on both sides. Not a functional issue but again, workmanship.
• The neck appears to be mahogany, not maple as described. I don't consider that a negative of itself, but it's not what I ordered.
• The pickups sound better than expected but nothing to write home about. Very good starter guitar quality though.
• The tuners are predictably meh no-name parts. They appear to work okay and feel solid enough, but some are tightish while others have more give.
• 3-piece body.
  
  Nothing really surprising.

The good:

• 24 frets with thinner neck joint, absolutely excellent access to the high frets
• Thinner neck, but not Ibanez thin, more comparable to a standard Fender just maybe a tad less. Hard to tell side by side but I can feel it a little bit.
• Arrived without and cracks to the neck joint or around the headstock [check closely for this!]
• Lightweight
• Switch and knobs work fine
• Neck straight with what looks like the right relief
• It's pretty red but looks better then the photos and the veneer looks good, despite it probably being a graphic.
• Out-of-the-box setup is reasonably okay, action is low and intonated about right. A couple of slightly high frets causing very light buz in tow areas, and like almost all new guitars could stand a crown and polish, as it is, it plays well.
• The headstock has a small angle to it to help sustain out a bit, as does the string angle off the bridge.
• The bridge posts feel solid and tight, which is nice for a change (looking at you, Epiphone). It appears to be a Gotoh which is fine, is not locking.

How it sounds.

Pretty decent actually. It does everything pretty well. It doesn't have that Stratty clean bell sound and leans more to thicker sounds with nice sustain, but it's not like LP fat either because of the thinner body. It's kind Gibson SG-ish sounding but feels like an Ibanez type to hold it, almost, just no tremolo. It seems to excel at that Alice In Chains-y kind of middle ground, and takes well to the old Scott Ian/Anthrax rhythm sound which I like. Which is pretty convenient as I just so happen to have a chrome Jazz and JB pickup set for this. I might try a Super Distortion first though since I have one of those around too.

All things considered it's a lolsteal at $195 shipped and I'm very surprised to see that they still have some in stock. The kind of nit picks I'm making at it shouldn't put off someone just starting out at all though, a person could definitely do well learning on this as it is, without even taking it in for a setup if they're as lucky. I wouldn't be crazy about it for $400 but it does have a lot of features I like a lot and is a pretty ideal beginner guitar. You won't have hum from single coils, it sustains well and sounds stronger/warmer than a Strat type, it's the Strat scale, comfortable with easy fret access anywhere. Nothing too extreme about it in any area and sounds good and should be very easy to play on.

Someone wanting to take it to the next level would probably want to swap out tuners, electronics and pickups, maybe have a new nut put in, and take it in to a [real] pro for a setup to include fret level and the whole 9. All that would add up to more than the price of the guitar or break even even if you could do the work yourself. I'll see how it sounds with the new pickups in there on mine and see if I think it's worth it to go to town on it. My overall impression is that it's a pretty good guitar other than some minor cosmetic and attention to detail things only I'll see, could easily be a pro-grade guitar functionally speaking with some TLC.

I'd say it's like a poor man's Schecter C series (midrange guitar). This particular Schecter is much better equipped as far as hardware across the board and the quality figures to be a bit better as well (I'll take Korean stuff over Chinese stuff), but we're comparing $200 vs $700.

i have an apt that i have to leave for in a few minutes and will more than likely miss the delivery i am guessing. will probably have to wait until sat to pick it up if that is the case.

i left them a note to have them put in on my patio. wasn't sure if they would, but they did. yay!!
looks great (aside from a few scratches on the back edge. got it tuned up and it plays great. haven't gone as in depth as gonso, but i think i am gonna love it. it seems super light though compared to my squire. it is my first big boy guitar though. awwww.
pics:

pretty nice guitar imo

i think so. def the nicest one i've ever owned.

does it have quite a bit more gain than your strat iyo?

Anyone want to exchange some tabs ? (magazines,tab books,etc.) . PM if anyone interested

Sorry this cell camera is crap. Mrs Gonso's going to flip if she comes home to find all this bull**** on the table though so lemme go

PS it came with a cheap guitar cable. Not that I'd use it but it's a plus. Hopefully I can fetch $40-$50 it and for all the parts I strip out of it, because that would be awesome.

i don't know what that is.

Awesome! Great that they left it for you, wouldn't happen here unless someone signed for it. I have had to travel 45 mins-1hour to pick stuff up because I wasn't home = annoying to say the least!

Nice write up gons.

I have a late 90's Washburn Red Rocker R150, that has a similar finish (well it's red!). It is Korean made. It's a strange Acoustic/Electic solid body, with an acoustic chamber and uses Acoustic Strings. I still don't know if I like it after all these years, but it's fairly pretty.

Bad light as it was night time sorry:






Let us know what you think of it once you have had a chance to play around with it.

@ gonso

Did it also come with several thousand spare necks???

Does it get louder easier?

lol no. Those are 3 necks I have off at the moment, they all have my signature and "Fender logos" on them (2 of 3 are really Warmoth necks). Like my other guitars you've seen. Oh and a Les Paul baritone Warmoth neck, homeless. Reworking a couple of guitars and trying to get it all done same day off. Too much BSing around on 2p2 and I have failed.

There are always spare necks and bodies laying around here in various stages of completion.

Analogue that's kind of a strange bird there. It looks like an L5S in shape and control layout, with an acoustic style bridge and a rails pickup. And chrome dome knobs. It almost looks as if it features were picked at random. If it weren't for the color I'd probably like the way it clashes with itself

Yeah it is definitely unique.

It is a Sammy Hagar (Van Halen post David as you probably know anyway) signature and as Sammy is no guitarist it probably accounts for its randomness.

It's sound is strange too. It has a piezo as well as the railed humbucker and a blend control between the two. I am not sure that was such a good idea though. Also the levels between the piezo and humbucker are just way too different. The acoustic tone fails too imo.

The electric sound is much better, though if you are going down that route it is crazy that it takes acoustic strings as they are much harder to bend etc.

So yeah, it's really something someone wanted too much of a good thing and it didn't work.

i messed with it a bit and think i really am going to like it a lot.

i looked it up i don't have really any of those controls on the amp i have. just a simple one with a treble, bass, volume, and and overdrive button.

On any of those things like your pedals they usually have a master volume and a gain.

On a distortion or overdrive pedal pedal when you increase the gain relative to the main volume you will create different sorts of crunch/distortion. Actually your drive pedal will most likely have "drive" instead of gain.

You can try different combinations of settings to get different sounds. Like low amp main volume settings but high guitar and pedal settings etc.

Just mess about with them till you get sounds you like. There's no real tried and true method in the sense that all guitars, effects, amps, conditions, environment, player etc will produce different results.

What brand is the overdrive pedal?